Dive Brief:
- Cell therapy specialist Mesoblast has set its sights on the Chinese market, inking a deal with established Chinese pharma Tasly Pharmaceutical. Tasly will develop and market Mesoblast’s allogeneic mesenchymal precursor cell candidates MPC-150-IM and MPC-25-IC for its home market.
- Per the deal, Tasly will get exclusive rights to the two candidates, in return for funding all R&D activities in China. Mesoblast will earn $40 million on closing, split equally between an upfront technology access fee and equity investment.
- Mesoblast will also receive $25 million upon product regulatory approvals in China, double-digit escalating royalties on net product sales and milestone payments provided sales meet certain thresholds in China.
Dive Insight:
A company with $4 billion in annual turnover, Tasly Pharmaceutical is rather better known for its herbal remedies and traditional Chinese medicines. Late last year, for example, it signed a deal with the controversial nutrition company Herbalife to form a U.S. consumer health joint venture.
Tasly does have a broader reach, however, including biologics and small molecule drugs in cardiology, metabolism and oncology, and holds the first approval for a biologic for cardiovascular disease in China. The clotbuster Pro-UK, a recombinant human prourokinase, was approved in 2011. While it has facilities for using cells to produce biologics, this will be its first step into cell therapy.
According to Reuters, Tasly is setting out to float its wholly-owned biopharma arm — Shanghai Tasly Pharmaceutical — on the Hong Kong stock exchange in the second half of this year, with an expected value of $1 billion.
The deal covers Mesoblast’s two allogeneic mesenchymal precursor cell product candidates MPC-150-IM, for the treatment or prevention of chronic heart failure, and MPC-25-IC, for the treatment or prevention of acute myocardial infarction.
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MPC-150-IM has completed enrollment of a Phase 3 clinical trial for advanced heart failure, and a Phase 2b study for end-stage heart failure requiring mechanical circulatory support is ongoing.
Date: July 23, 2018
Source: BioPharmaDive
